in traffic. how much? and can you guess which city is the worst? here's abc's scecilia vega. >> reporter: the sea of brake lights, back-to-back, bumper-to-bumper. a never ending commute hell. that's jim mccauley's daily ritual from new jersey to new york. >> can be really frustrating at times, you know? 45 minutes sitting in traffic, it tests your patience. it really does. >> reporter: we've all done it, sat in our cars, saying, this is such a waste of time. but how much time are we actually wasting? one study did the math. all that traffic means commuters spend an average of 38 hours a year just sitting there. in that amount of time, you could have taken five vacation days. played nine rounds of golf. watched all three seasons of "downton abbey." >> i play solitaire on my phone. >> reporter: sure, new york and l.a. are bad, but try living in the nation's capital. washington d.c. is home to the worst traffic in the country, where what should be a 30-minute drive takes about three hours. >> there's a longer commute because they're going to drive further to get a higher paying job. so, rat
